Q. If a woman can no longer bear children due to age or surgery, can she still get married in the Church?
A. For all of the Sacrament of Marriage’s beauty and expression of Divine Love, it is also a legal reality and as such is governed by the laws of the Church.
While Catholics have a right to be married in the Church (CIC c. 1058), it is not an absolute right. To be married in the Church, one must accept the Church’s understanding of marriage, namely, that it is mutual partnership ordered to the procreation of children and the good of the spouses, freely and knowingly entered into between a man and woman which is exclusive, permanent, and open to life. If a person doesn’t accept that, then they cannot be married in the Church since they are not seeking marriage but something else.
Even for those who do accept the Church’s understanding of marriage, there are still certain legal categories that disqualify someone from being able to be married in the Church. These are called Diriment Impediments because they impede one from being able to enter into a marriage. Some of them arise from Natural Law (like consanguinity) others Divine Law (you cannot be married if you are already married) while most arise from merely ecclesiastical law (such as those in Sacred Orders cannot be married).
There are 12 Diriment Impediments in the Code of Canon Law governing Latin Catholics. Not listed amongst these is infertility. In fact, the Code explicitly states that “Sterility neither prohibits nor nullifies marriage” (CIC c. 1084 §3). Marriage is ordered to the procreation of children and a couple must be open to life and engage in sexual activity in such a way that, all things being equal, a child could be conceived if the couple were fertile (CIC c. 1061 §1). But, as many couples have experienced, being open to life and doing nothing to hinder the conception of children does not always mean children will be conceived.
It can sound like a banal saying, but children really are a gift from God. A couple cannot will a child into existence. Just because a marriage is ordered to life, that does not mean life will always be generated, in the same way that, just because a marriage is ordered to the good of spouses, no marriages are perfectly free from difficulty and conflict between husband and wife. These are essentially the intentions of marriage and a couple needs to enter into marriage with these intentions. Even if they are not achieved in the fullest sense, the marriage is still a marriage. Measuring the “Catholic-ness” of a marriage based on how many children a couple has is simply not a very Catholic thing to do.
It can happen that a woman might voluntarily undergo a procedure to become infertile. While this is not in accord with the dignity of the human person and is therefore contrary to Church teaching, assuming she later repented of this and went to confession, she could still be validly married in the Church. If it is possible for the procedure to be reversed, and the reversal did not constitute a grave financial burden or serious health risk, the general consensus of moral theologians is the procedure should be reversed, but it is not a formal obligation.
This question was answered by Father Caleb La Rue, chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln. Write to Ask the Register using our online form, or write to 3700 Sheridan Blvd., Suite 10, Lincoln NE 68506-6100. All questions are subject to editing. Editors decide which questions to publish. Personal questions cannot be answered. People with such questions are urged to take them to their nearest Catholic priest.
